PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working!

Posted on January 4, 2011 by kakaroto

Update: I’ve now fixed the issue about the missing game data icons. PS3-Hacks.com has a nice step-by-step tutorials and they posted the PUP files.

Update 2: DO NOT try to install this from the service mode, it might brick your console, install it normally from the normal menu or the recovery menu.

Great news!

Thanks to the tools made by the fail0verflow team (and thanks to sven in particular for his work on the pkg/unpkg tools), the first “Custom Firmware” is now available for the PS3!

I see a lot of questions coming up really fast on my Twitter account, so here are the basic things you need to know :

Because of legal/copyright issues, I will not provide the custom firmware to anyone, however, I’ve made available all the tools necessary to transform an Official firmware update, into a custom one, just grab my ps3utils repository from github, compile, then run :

./create_cfw.sh PS3UPDATE.PUP CFW.PUP

This will take the official firmware, unpack it, modify it, then repack it correctly (requires you to install ps3tools).

This should work on Linux and Mac for now, but I’m sure others will do it for the masses and illegally release those files somewhere.

The advantage here is that you can do it for any firmware, if you want to keep version 3.41, then give it the 3.41 update, if you are on 3.55 already and can’t downgrade, then run the script on the official 3.55 firmware and it will create a modified 3.55 firmware.

You can put the file in a USB drive under the filename “PS3/UPDATE/PS3UPDAT.PUP” and then go to system update in the XMB, and it will allow you to install the update (even if you’re already on 3.55).

People are asking what are the features of this firmware, it’s simple, all it does is to add those “Install Package Files” options to the Game section of the XMB. It doesn’t do anything else!

This firmware will not allow you to run the currently available homebrew application. Once the homebrew developers re-package their files in a ‘retail’ .pkg format with signed executable, then it will work (this should be coming soon thanks to the work of the fail0verflow team).

Since the kernel is left unmodified, this means that this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation, and it will not allow piracy. I plan on keeping it that way.

This is just the first attempt at custom firmware, and it only contains a minor modification to allow you to install pkg files directly, eventually we’ll get some more options added to it in the future. This is just starting to get interesting!

p.s: Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!

Enjoy! 🙂
KaKaRoTo

263 thoughts on “PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working!”

Varg on January 5, 2011 at 8:21 AM said:

THX!
James on January 5, 2011 at 8:38 AM said:

Would it be possible to patch CFW to work with any bluray drive? Certainly many have old PS3s with burnt BD controller ICs.
Guy Incognito on January 5, 2011 at 8:41 AM said:

Is there any likelihood that this will unlock multiregion DVD / Blu Ray capability?
Andre on January 5, 2011 at 8:42 AM said:

And thats all for your linux you and your hacker community guys are taft guy’s PS3 are sheap hardware may sony say smile for your life. thx i am only need it for game ply.
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jeferson on January 5, 2011 at 8:50 AM said:

I already have some games in HD, when I had the dongle I have copied several games to the hd, most burned my dongle and I updated my PS3 to FW 3.55, if I upgrade with this PS3UPDAT.355Cfw.KaKaRoTo-1.1.pup I can already run these games I have in HD (with gaia, backup manager,…), or I’ll have to wait a bit for this?
Cartman on January 5, 2011 at 8:52 AM said:

Can’t create CFW on a Mac (ps3tools installed)
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MRW on January 5, 2011 at 9:00 AM said:

Solution for all my Problems:

1. How to clone the repository?

Solution replace https by git:
git clone git://github.com/kakaroto/ps3keys

2. Errormessage: “Could not unpkg ../dev_flash_000.tar.aa.2010_11_27_051337”

Solution:

A) For the next problem you would get, first copy the ps3-keys to ~/.ps3

git clone git://github.com/kakaroto/ps3keys
mv ps3keys ~/.ps3

B) Then you need a tool named “unpkg” mentioned above in the blog.

Get it from:
git clone git://git.fail0verflow.com/ps3tools

cd ps3tools
make

And add the path:
PATH=/path/to/unpack:${PATH} ./create_cfw.sh PS3UPDAT.PUP CFW.PUP

For me:
PATH=../ps3tools:${PATH} ./create_cfw.sh PS3UPDAT.PUP CFW.PUP

3. It hangs!

Then, when starting, I thought it hangs and startetd to debug; but the solution is so simple: just wait! It is extremely slow at “get_rand(ptr, 3 * 8 * 0x10);” in file pkg.c of the ps3tools.

So, that’s it, just a little bit mor dummy-safe. 🙂

Thank’s a lot for the tools. I’m looking forward to get my OtherOS back again!
NavahoGL on January 5, 2011 at 9:00 AM said:

Going through the code, I noticed the following line in pdb_gen.c,

strcat (download_url, “?product=0084&country=us”);

Wondering whether this should be different for a European console?

BTW, there are potential exploitable vulnerabilties in the code [if called with too long parameters], I think you want to replace those sprintf() with snprintf()’s…..

Other than that, keep up the good work! 😉
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MARIS1=PSN on January 5, 2011 at 9:01 AM said:

Cooolllllll mannn

THXXXX THANKZZZZZ
Anon on January 5, 2011 at 9:12 AM said:

Thanks KaKaRoTo…

Pleas work for online and a backups

😉
hacker chirdalover on January 5, 2011 at 9:22 AM said:

tanx my brother
Heliz10 on January 5, 2011 at 9:26 AM said:

you’ll ruin it.
poor ps3
Ariston on January 5, 2011 at 9:33 AM said:

the thing is even if you dont want piracy on your cfw. anyone can make one now. meaning it will allow piracy. its open field now, the very core of the ps3 has been hacked. either nothin will happen and ps3 will continue as normal or game devs will jump ship, ps3 will become abondonware or be run completely underground. meaning all indie games, gamers could run there own servers. yes people will hack and cheat but other hackers can make their own anti-hack software. with the power of the ps3 we could see some amazing things, which im all open too. play wii games? yup i’ll do it. DC ps2? yes please. run firefox off my ps3….AGAIN? yes sir. imagine years from now when homebrew devs really ge crackin and make games just as good(if not better because of lack of red tape, deadlines, legal issues like brandnames etc.) as “official devs”. its really goin to be a wonderful thing
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Ariston on January 5, 2011 at 9:48 AM said:

ah you average minded, misguided with anti-piracy propoganda, “casual gamers” have no idea whats coming. you’ll be bitching about features like invisble walls and bugs in fallout newvegas, looking to SONY or the company that sold you the game for a fix or answers…only to be left out in the cold because they’re greedy corporations they already got your money so as far as they’re concerned you could fuck off. where as with our hacked ps3’s we can get unofficial patches and fixes(which pc gamers have done for years) without waiting for an M$ patch approval or the company quit supporting the game and moved on to something else.(medal of honor, etc). enjoy being overcharged and ignored when you found out whatever game you bought is a horrible unplayable mess with no where to turn but to crappy outsourced customer service which in the end evolves into nothing being resolved. oh and if pirating really does hurt the industry so bad, heres an idea. get you and everyone you know to pirate EVERYTHING for 6 mos or a 1yr, then stop pirating, if CoDMWHALOBFUNchartedFPSsuperfuntimeconsolegame doesn’t still make millions then yes piracy is bad. if your still getting overcharged for mapacks and other content which was already on the disc anyway, then no piracy doesnt do squat to the gaming industry(this is the true answer)
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Noctis on January 5, 2011 at 10:14 AM said:

Wow !

I have few questions about that :

– Would it be possible to re-add the pure black theme and the tune Sony deleted when the Slim PS3 was released ? And the PS3 logo when a game is launching ?
NINJA on January 5, 2011 at 10:30 AM said:

Is it possible to retrieve data from a formated PS3 hard disk like save data ,profiles or media

hope so … especially after suffering from YLOD
unhappy on January 5, 2011 at 10:34 AM said:

Why are you doing this? you know it will lead to piracy and the destruction of the PS3, just like what happened to PSP. It makes me really sad, please turn your talents to creating your own works instead of destroying other peoples. I dont want PS3 ruined by hackers and piracy.
ANNA OLSON on January 5, 2011 at 10:42 AM said:

Is there any way to control PS3 fan speed in the Custom Firmware.
Thanks
NINJA on January 5, 2011 at 10:43 AM said:

Is there any way TO control PS3 FAN speed in the Custom Firmware
ANNA OLSON on January 5, 2011 at 10:44 AM said:

Is there any way TO control PS3 FAN speed in the Custom Firmware
fractal on January 5, 2011 at 10:47 AM said:

hi,

thank you for your work! 🙂

soon after fail0versnow published the lv2ldr keys and the “random” number fail by sony, which made it possible to calculate the keys,
geohot used the same calc method to get the keys of metldr which is a bit higher in the chain of trust of the security system.
but i think you know that already… so…did you play around with the metldr keys already?
Richard on January 5, 2011 at 10:51 AM said:

How can I get my player to be multi-region? I am in the US with US PS3 slim. I own several British DVDs that are PAL/Region-2. Since I have an HDTV, resolution shouldn’t matter, since it will just upscale it to 1080. So, it should just be a matter of getting it to play a region 2 disc, correct?

I also seen a lot of commercial bluray discs that aren’t region encoded for some reason. That being said, if I buy discs in Europe that aren’t region coded, would it still play on a US PS3? Since there is no such thing as PAL or NTSC version of HD (far as I know about at least), the ps3 should play the discs, correct?

I am not for ripping and burning to a disc for either option, I like the original media. I used to have an Oppo dvd player but don’t want to spend $600 on a new one that I can hack. I like having one unit in the cabinet now.
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I want PS2 Controllers back on January 5, 2011 at 11:50 AM said:

I hope someone smarter than me will re-enable all the controller adapters that Sony killed in the 3.5 update. I bought a PS2->PS3 controller adapter from CompUSA a few years ago that worked great but Sony killed it in a firmware upgrade, I would very much like to get it back.
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Junke1990 on January 5, 2011 at 12:02 PM said:

( @MRW )

Anyone else with this error?

./create_cfw.sh: line 80: 6205 Segmentation fault $UNPKG $f “$(basename $f).tar” >> $LOGFILE 2>&1
Could not unpkg ../dev_flash_000.tar.aa.2010_09_13_230920

junke@junke-eee:~/ps3$ ls
anergistic firmware noralizer ps3keys ps3tools ps3utils
Junke1990 on January 5, 2011 at 12:07 PM said:

nvm my bad
[Video - Jailbreak any PS3 with just a USB FW 3.41 - 3.55] on January 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM said:

Great!
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Mark Tomlin on January 5, 2011 at 12:53 PM said:

Where not all pirates. I don’t care about stealing games, I’m quite happy paying for them. I don’t like it when I buy hard ware and it LOSES FEATURES as the product get’s older. Sony made a huge mistake when they took away the Other OS option of the PS3. Now, I expect that it will be given back to the community with these updates. This is Sony’s fault that we have to resort to these measures.
mat on January 5, 2011 at 1:03 PM said:

“Entropy needed for random key signing. MOVE YOUR MOUSE until it’s done!!!”

I am accessing my machine remotely through putty! hence NO MOUSE support! would you pls fix this?!
Carlos on January 5, 2011 at 1:18 PM said:

Hola esto funcionara en windows 7???

This can work on windows 7?? And how i can download that file ” ps3tools ” ?
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Arthur on January 5, 2011 at 1:46 PM said:

Can I put this 3.55 on the PS3? Will I be able to run games that are on my PS3 HDD? and that the online play?
Hey Listen on January 5, 2011 at 1:55 PM said:

Arthur Just Wait A Few Weeks!

this CFW is Good but still cant run BackUp Manger!

So Wait Untill He Says Its K!
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PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working!

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